Jabir credits Deane for help
Returning women’s coach recalls learning from ex-men’s coach
Loudonville
When Jim Jabir became Siena women’s basketball coach for the first time as a 24-year-old in 1987, he got a visit from men’s coach Mike Deane, hired just a year earlier.
The men’s and women’s teams practiced in the same gymnasium in Alumni Recreation Center, now known as UHY Center. Jabir’s desk was in the ticket office.
“Mike stuck his head in the door and said, ‘Hey, I’ll help you in any way I can, just don’t mess with our practice times,” Jabir recalled. “I said, ‘OK, I can do that.’”
Jabir recalled that moment at the news conference at UHY Center on Friday announcing his re-hiring to lead the Saints women’s basketball program, 31 years after his first stint in Loudonville.
He described his tenure at Siena from 1987-90 as “transformative,” largely because of the assistance he got from Deane and the men’s program. Deane took Siena to its first NCAA Tournament in 1989 and the National Invitation Tournament semifinals in 1994.
“I learned so much,” Jabir said. “I lived in their practices, I lived in their locker room, in (Deane’s) office. He took me to the cafeteria to feed me almost every day during the week. He taught me what basketball was and I still use the expressions, the drills, the theories that he taught me. So I’m really indebted to him.”
Retired and living in South Carolina, Deane was pleased to hear Jabir is returning to Loudonville.
“I haven’t talked with Jim about it, but I’m excited for him,” Deane said. “I think he’s a great guy . ... I consider him a friend and I think he’s an excellent basketball coach and I think that’s a great move on Siena’s part if they want to have a quality program. He’s a proven guy.”
Jabir and Deane both left Siena for Marquette — Jabir in 1990 and Deane four years later. They were colleagues at the Milwaukee school for two years before Jabir departed for Providence.
Jabir has won more than 500 games, Deane more than 400 and both have taken multiple schools to the NCAA Tournament.
“I think there was a symbiotic relationship there (at Siena),” Deane said. “It wasn’t all onesided. I think we got along very, very well and almost every place I’ve worked, I’ve gotten along pretty well with the women’s coach and consider almost all of the coaches I’ve worked with as friends. But Jim is a great guy and I think he was a young coach when he first got the job there. I’m sure that by the time he got to Marquette, we would share ideas. I may have given more ideas right at the beginning, but by the time I got to Marquette, we would share ideas and share plays and concepts and we would talk basketball a lot. I would be at his practices and he would be at mine.”
Their paths crossed again in 2013. Deane was an assistant coach at James Madison, which played in the NCAA Tournament in Dayton. By that time, Jabir had become head coach at the University of Dayton and was building the Flyers into a nationally ranked program.
“We got to use Jim’s facility,” Deane recalled. “We spent four days in Dayton and got to hang out a little bit. That was nice.”
Deane wasn’t totally surprised Jabir left his job at Florida Atlantic, where he’d spent the past four years, to return to Siena.
“Boca (Raton) obviously is nice,” Deane said. “It’s an expensive place, and I’m not sure what the commitment was at Florida Atlantic, where I think he recognizes that they’ll help him at Siena to be as good as he possibly can be. I’m sure that was attractive to him.”